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Toolbox Gallery exists at the unique and oft-overlooked intersection of craft, construction trades, expert creation, and quietly explored artistry. Hence the name.
“I can see the art in the construction,” says Seyona Belai, Toolbox’s founder and the owner of Zana Construction (more on that later). “You look behind the walls, and you can see the math and science and thought and time.” She taps on the wall of the gallery showroom. “There is art in here.”
Belai gestures behind the walls, but the display hanging from them is undeniable. In Timber to Ash, project manager Michael Rank displays crafted wood sculptures that take a minimalist point of view to deliver striking, richly hued, and glossily textured carved wood silhouettes. Graphite portraits by tradesman Jason Tipps are so finely detailed they are indistinguishable from HD photos.
That these artists are tradespeople first is the core of Toolbox’s modus operandi. Belai’s perspective itself is a winding road of elite masonry, woodwork, drafting and finishing. Educated in art history at Lewis & Clark College, Belai rooted her aspirations in gallery work until she found herself working for a construction company. She began her construction career in admin, then moved through her company as an apprentice. It was after the birth of her first child, however, when the reality of a limited company maternity leave compelled Belai to break off and, with the support of her former employer, start her own union-signatory finish carpentry company: enter Zana Construction.
It was in her work with Zana that Belai finally caught lightning in a bottle. In her consistent, career-spanning interactions with tradespeople, a long-held pattern emerged: What many of these expert craftspeople considered the creative frippery or simple hobby busywork of their recreation time was, in fact, fine art so rare and refined it defied the conventional interpretation of both a tradesperson and a fine artist altogether.
And so, positioned squarely in downtown Milwaukie, only a few steps from the lumberyard that serves as Main Street’s nucleus, Belai’s Toolbox Gallery meets the town where it is: redefining fine art; shifting the perspective to include the incredibly skilled crafts- and tradespeople who might never consider themselves such otherwise; and inviting them into a greater conversation about art, community and the cultural connections that tie the trades to the focused creativity many tradespeople pursue in their spare time.
This distinct niche Belai has created is more than an artistic platform.
“The greater goal is community,” Belai says. “We have workshops and artist talks, and on opening nights there’s always things for the kids to do.” She laughs, aware of how a gallery built on relationships in a community of infinitely talented, intergenerational blue-collar families is a subversion of the highbrow snobbery synonymous with fine art.
“We are for everyone—retired tradespeople, the elderly,” Belai continues. “Their value here is tremendous, their storytelling, their lessons—we don’t overlook them.”
This is evidenced beautifully in Toolbox’s upcoming slate of spring programming, which, during the month of April, includes a tribute to Dorothy and Hurtis Hadley. The Hadleys are the founders of the historic Milwaukie Pastry Kitchen, Oregon’s first Black-owned and -operated bakery. On April 11, the Hadleys will visit the gallery for an afternoon of conversation, their original tools and equipment on display.
April’s programming also includes the delicately detailed illustrative paintings of scientist-turned-artist Margarita Marochkina before summer programming unfurls with events and workshops for kids and families and fall welcomes a litany of Literary Arts Portland Book Festival events.
“We’re ready,” Belai says. “We celebrate our one-year anniversary in April—we can only get bigger from here.”
SEE IT: Toolbox Gallery, 2029 SE Jefferson St., Milwaukie, 971-335-3980, toolboxart.org. 10 am–5 pm Tuesday–Saturday.
